1 Peter - Week 2 Devotional | May 2 - 6

Read 1 Peter 1:3-9, focusing on how Peter describes God’s activity.

• What are the things that Peter wants his readers to know about…
  • God’s reason for doing what Peter will go on  to describe – 1 Peter 1:3
  • What God has done for his people – 1 Peter 1:3-4
  • What God’s people look forward to “in the last times” – 1 Peter 1:4-5

Peter begins the first part of his letter with a reminder that God has begun, and is doing, a remarkable work in his church.  Pray today in Thanksgiving, praising God for this magnificent work that he has done!

Read 1 Peter 1:3-9 again. Today as you read, focus on the significance of this passage for the lives of those who would have read it first.

• 1 Peter 1:6 – What kind of response to their trials can they have because of what God has done?
• 1 Peter 1:7 – What kind of value is ascribed to genuine faith?
• 1 Peter 1:8-9 – How are you encouraged by this summary of what it is like to wait eagerly for Jesus’ return? 

Pray today in Repentance and Supplication, asking the Holy Spirit to encourage you to continue through trials you face by giving you confidence in God’s work.

Peter begins the body of his letter with a reminder of what God has done, and how it encourages Christians to continue through all manner of trials. Let’s look at a few examples:

• Read Deuteronomy 7:17-21. Who was going to be with the Israelites as they entered the Promised Land and fought against their enemies?
• Read 1 Kings 2:1-4.  What is the promise that David uses to motivate Solomon to remember and pass on God’s Law and the stories of what God has done?
• Read Isaiah 65:11-12.  What is warned about for those who forget God?  What will happen to them when they turn away from him?

Pray today in Supplication, asking that the Holy Spirit would show you how you might no longer forget God and his ways, and would bring to your mind these things throughout your day.

Yesterday we read that, in the Old Testament, God’s people were to always remember what it is that God had done for them. Today we will look at the New Testament to see those things that Peter is reminding his readers of.

• Read 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. What is the hope that Christians have because Jesus rose from the dead?
  • Contrast this with 1 Corinthians 15:17-19.  If Jesus did not come back to life, our faith is useless, and is powerless to save us.
• Read Romans 8:18-23.  What do wait for as we suffer in the present?  How does it compare to our present sufferings?
  • Read Romans 8:26-27.  What does the Holy Spirit do for us in the midst of our suffering?

Pray today again in Adoration and Thanksgiving! Worship God, the one who gives us an incomparable hope, and thanks God that he sent the Holy Spirit to empower us as we wait!

Read 1 Peter 1:3-9 and focus on the reminders that Peter gives.

• 1 Peter 1:5 – How is it that we are able to make it until the last time?
• 1 Peter 1:7 – What is the testing of your faith intended to lead to?
• 1 Peter 1:9 – What is the outcome of our faith that we are waiting for?

Pray today in Repentance and Supplication, asking that Holy Spirit would convict you of the ways that you have made your faith about anything other than enjoying a relationship with God that he made possible by sending Jesus to die and rise again, and asking that God would renew your mind so that you are able to remember how it is that he is accomplishing the work he began in you.